The most disturbing aspect of this new wave of extrajudicial executions is of course the latter, in which random Palestinian citizens of Israel are attacked in the streetby random Jewish citizens if identified to be Arab. In the best case scenario, they are just humiliated and brutally beaten, in the worst case they are shot multiple times by hysterical police officers.

Of course, executions of Palestinians, under guise of “security threat” is not a new trend, in fact it dates back to 1947 (you know, that first time Zionist militias went all genocidal on the Palestinian people):

The Holocaust, argues Oron, was politically crucial to Ben-Gurion. It not only contributed to the support of Zionist goals and migration to Palestine, but also strengthened the Yishuv’s incentive to fight a war against the Palestinians and Arabs in the desire to avoid, at all cost, the possibility of a Holocaust reoccurring. Ben-Gurion was repeatedly quoted, saying: “We must not say that what happened in Europe to six million Jews cannot happen to 650,000 Jews in Palestine … what happened in Europe may happen in Palestine … if we do not prepare seriously and without delay” (p. 108). Ben-Gurion’s use of the Holocaust had a vital impact on the Jewish Yishuv’s leadership, individual members, and armed forces, and, among other factors, contributed to the Yishuv belief in waging a struggle of existence; they would either be victorious over the Palestinians and Arabs, or they die. What awaited them if defeated would be comparable to the Holocaust.

Back to 2015; like a self fulfilling prophecy, several Palestinian youth have lashed out and stabbed Israeli soldiers and civilians. Though this phenomena isn’t coordinated, or sustainable, Israel is using the opportunity to tighten its control over the West Bank, and reestablish and escalate the already lax open-fire regulations. So lax, in fact, that many of the Palestinians being killed are citizens of Israel.

Beyond the particularities of this bloody episode, there is also the wider context of the crime of genocide, which I discuss at length in the “Let’s Talk About Genocide” series [Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. My analysis stems from the assumption that Palestinians are in a reality of a continuous genocide, according to the Convention of Prevention of Genocide, with recurring peaks of violence (last summer’s bombing of Gaza to the effect of 6 nuclearbombs, murdering 2300 people, including over 500 children, is one harrowing example) that induce heightened acts of resistance. The mechanisms of genocide that are in place are not put on hold because the victims of the genocide killed members of the population that benefit from the genocide. These uncoordinated stabbings are a gut response to the continuous extermination.

Israel’s security cabinet voted unanimously Thursday evening to permit the use of sniper-fire against stone throwers in circumstances where an officer’s life is not at imminent risk… “Until recently police would open fire only when their own lives were in danger. As of now, they will be permitted to open fire – and they will know that they have the right to open fire – when they face danger to any lives,” Netanyahu said.

Several high-ranking Israeli officials have called on civilians to start carrying weapons around the clock, following a spate of stabbings and shootings by Palestinians in Jerusalem in recent days, Ha’aretz reported Thursday. “It’s like doing reserve duty,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barakat said during an interview with Army Radio Thursday morning, according to the Israeli newspaper.

A police commander of Ashdod made a similar call during a town hall council meeting in the coastal Israeli city…

Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan has joined the call for all Israeli citizens licensed to carry weapons to do so, following a stabbing in the coastal Israeli city of Tel-Aviv. He reportedly said any terrorist who chooses to stab someone with a knife should expect to be shot in response, according to the Jewish Press.

We have boosted our forces and are using all necessary means and methods in the fight against this terrorism… Civilians are at the forefront of the war against terrorism and must also be on maximum alert…

The lowest ranking army and police officers (teenagers), including those in reserves will be permitted to obtain a licence.

The requirement of a two year minimum on the job is cancelled.

In addition to active duty and reserves, people who have served in certain unites in the past, but are no longer serving, are also permitted.

Anyone who worked as a security guard for two years (past, or present) is permitted. (On a side note, one of the ways of excluding Palestinians from the workforce, especially, but not limited to security jobs, is requiring full army service.)

… we have removed our request for a vote of no confidence in the government because this is not the time to deal in politics… what the country of Israel needs right now- unity, the feeling that we are all standing together against a common enemy… A terrorist came and tried to stab the security forces and was shot and killed and that is the way it should be… The rabbis teach that if someone comes up against you to kill you, you should kill him first and that should be our working model.

On a side note: The thwarted “terrorist attack” Lapid was referring to was the extrajudicial execution of 18 year-old Mustafa Adel al-Khatib, whom witnesses report was still in his car, when he was shot.

Comparably to the grand total of 44 killed (45 as I write), these 6 women and girls seem like a negligible number.But it’s the recent coverage in Israeli media that points to an escalation of harm to Palestinian women. This is the front page of last Wednesday’s paper:

At the Terror Front: Women

They go out to murder civilians with knives, move car bombs, and throw stones: In the new wave of terror Palestinian women play a central role.

These kinds of headlines, put together with the calls to Israeli Jews to shoot-to-kill Palestinians further thrust Israel into the genocidal mindset. Palestinian men and boys were already fair-game, and were, until these days, Israel’s prime target. Now women- specifically young women- are also explicit targets. In other words, all Palestinians are now shoot-to-kill targets. Their killing carries no punishment, and their killer can be anyone: A soldier, a police officer, the guy behind them in the checkout line at the super-market.

I was surprised to find out that many of my Arab friends “shared” my call, and that they themselves are just as afraid to walk around or enter the public sphere, for fear of falling prey to Jewish mobs. This is especially relevant following the videos of Jews only calling to execute Arab who fell into their trap. In Netanya we saw a lynch of Arab workers, while in Jerusalem a group of criminals roams the streets at night looking for Arabs. They ask random people for the time, and if they answer with an Arabic accent, it’s all over.

On days where insanity is the indisputable ruler — when anyone can carry a weapon and feel like his life is in danger, simply because an Arab woman opened her bag next to him — who knows how things will end.